People Behind LeanHCM
Experience, research, and practical expertise - brought together to help organizations align vision, people, and growth.
Leadership
Dr. Ringo Rajagopal
Managing Partner, LeanHcm LLC
Dr. Ringo Rajagopal brings over three decades of leadership experience across sales, marketing, operations, and human resources, built across major global organizations in India and the United States. His academic foundation includes a Doctorate in Business Administration from Drexel University, Philadelphia, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta - credentials that anchor a career defined by senior leadership roles in talent strategy and corporate growth.
He began at Infosys in 1998, rising to Regional HR Lead and Head of Recruitment, USA, before joining Accenture as Head of Recruitment, India, where he led large-scale organizational and talent-building initiatives. In 2008, he joined Pride Global, New York, as Senior Vice President and Head of the BPO Consulting practice, directing high-impact client engagements. As Global Head of Marketing at Ameri100, he held a key leadership position in the company's successful NASDAQ listing in 2017.
He currently moderates the Entrepreneurial Leadership Forum, a platform convening entrepreneurial leaders to exchange leadership practice and insight, reflecting his continued engagement with leadership development beyond the corporate sphere.
Programs & Digital
Sunita M V V
Senior Manager - Programs
Sunita leads program coordination and delivery at LeanHCM, ensuring that learning and development initiatives are thoughtfully planned, seamlessly executed, and aligned with client and participant needs.
She works across program design, coordination, participant engagement, and delivery to create structured and meaningful learning experiences.
Manasa Edara
Digital Content Lead
Manasa leads LeanHCM’s digital content initiatives, developing clear, engaging, and purposeful content that supports the organization’s programs, communication, and digital presence.
She brings together creativity, clarity, and consistency to translate LeanHCM’s ideas and expertise into compelling digital experiences.
Advisors
LeanHCM is strengthened by perspectives from accomplished scholars and experts who bring research, experience, and global thinking to our work.
Daan van Knippenberg
Professor of Organizational Behavior, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Daan van Knippenberg is a leading scholar of leadership, diversity, teams, and creativity, with a research and academic-leadership record built over decades. He has authored more than 200 scholarly articles, books, and book chapters, published in top outlets including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal - establishing him as one of the field's most influential voices on leadership.
His academic leadership roles are equally significant: he is Founding Editor of Organizational Psychology Review, current Editor of the Academy of Management Annals, and a past Associate Editor of several leading journals. He co-founded the New Directions in Leadership Research conference, run jointly with Duke University, INSEAD, and The Wharton School, and has supervised 48 PhD tracks over his career, shaping the next generation of organizational scholars.
He is a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Association, and serves as Academic Director of the Institute of Strategic Leadership at Drexel University, where his MBA and executive teaching centers on leadership and diversity.
Dr. Abhishek Goel
Faculty, Organisational Behaviour Group, IIM Calcutta
Prof. Abhishek Goel has been on the faculty of the Organizational Behavior Group at IIM Calcutta since 2008, holding a PhD in Management from IIM Ahmedabad, where he is also recognized as a Fellow. His teaching centers on leadership: he leads courses in Global/Cross-Cultural Leadership, Building Leadership Potential, and Management of Self in Organizations, alongside PhD-level teaching in Leadership: Theory and Practice. His Global Leadership course, taught under CEMS, was named Best Course on Global Leadership across all 33 top CEMS partner schools worldwide in 2022 - 23: the first such honor for a non-European institution in CEMS's 35-year history.
His research on entrepreneurial leadership, research-project teams, and career transitions has appeared in Harvard Business Review and other leading international outlets, earning him the Young Scientist Award at the 29th International Congress of Psychology in Berlin, along with Visiting Fellowships in Germany and Spain.
He has held senior academic leadership positions at IIM Calcutta, including Chairperson of the MBA Programme (2022 - 2024) and Placement Chair (2018 - 2021), and served two terms as President of the International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values (2018 - 2022), alongside committee leadership roles within CEMS globally.